Merchandising device



June 11, 1946.

J. C. CALHOUN ET AL MERCHANDI S ING DEVICE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 25, 1942 N UM 505E RHDS Y o wN E AA N ofl E VCLJ W s L E A u MBA. M W W w J. C. CALHOUN ET AL Julie 11, 1946.

MERCHANDIS ING DEVICE Filed June 25, 1942 I 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 N .um 50S Hmx Y OLv E mm A N E .DH m V Maw m E Mwm mum W June 11, 1946.

J. C. CALHOUN ET AL MERCHANDISING DEVICE 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 25, 1942 T l l l l l l'l- IHH I IHHHHF H""Hu k" n a. 3: CL

Z a 4 4 a m J/ya INVENTORS JAMES C. CALHOUN W/LBUI? L. DAVIDSON BY KARL J H/iNSE/V AZORNEY June 11, 19 46. J. c. CALHOUN ETAL MERCHANDISING DEVICE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 25, 1942 holding the display panel upright. parts are so connected together so that the cabi- .net maybe fully assembled at the box plant and Patented June 11, 1946 MERCHANDISING DEVICE James C. Calhoun, New Haven, and Wilbur L. Davidson, Westport, Conn., and Karl J. Hansen, Forest Hills, N. Y., assigno'rs to Olin Industries, Inc., a corporation of Delaware Application June 25, 1942, Serial No. 14 8 3 84 9 Claims. 1

The invention relates to merchandising devices and more particularly to a pilfer-proof cabinet for displaying flashlights and the like.

According to a preferred form of the inventiOn, the cabinet comprises abody member of cardboard or the like having front, back and side walls, hingedly connected. Brace members also hingedly connect the front and back walls. Formed within the top of the body is an inclined display space having inclined forward and rear bottom walls resting upon said brace members. .The inclined bottom walls and the side walls form adisplay space in which a suitable number of flashlight batteries or other merchandise may beheld. I The back wall has a hinged back support to which is. secured a display wall. The display wall has a top wall connected thereto and the top wall has a hingedcover with a transparent window adapted to close the merchandise space. Suitable wings and ears are provided for The various then collapsed flat for shipment to the flashlight battery merchant.

Theinvention also consists in certain new and original features of construction and combinations of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

Although .the novel features which ar believed to-be characteristic of this invention will be particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto, the invention itself, as to its objects and 'advantages, and themanner in which it may be car- .ried out, may be better understood by referring to the following description taken in connection with the'accompanying drawings forming a part th e f in wh h .Fig. 1' is a-perspective taken from the front showing the battery merchandising cabinet set up with the batteries in place 2 is aperspective taken from the rear of theset-up cabinet;

Fig. 3,is a vertical section-through-the cabinet;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on'the line 4--4"0,f Fig. 3.

Fig. bisidPlan-section taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. :3.

jFig.- 6 11S .a plan section taken on the line'6.6 ofFig. 3.

Fig. "7 :is a planview of the cabinet showing a pref erred manner of collapsing;

Fig.'8'is a section on the line 8-8 of 'Fig. 7;

FigsLQ-to 12 show {blanks from which the cabinet is made;

*Fig."1'3-is,aview of the-frame member;

Fig. 14 is a section on the line 14-44 of the frame member shown in Fig. 13; and

Fig. 15 illustrates :a sheet of transparent material.

In the following description and in the claims, various details will be identified by specific names for convenience, but they are intended to be as generic in theirapplication as the art will permit.

Like reference characters denote like parts in the several figures of the drawings.

In the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, certain specific disclosure of the invention is made for purposes of explanation, but it will be understood that the details may be modified in various respectswithout departure from the broad aspect of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Figs. 9 to 15, the several blanks of cardboard or other suitable material are denoted by the reference characters A to D. Cuts are shown bysolid lines and scores by dot-and-dash lines. Two types of scores are shown, those indicated by double dot-and-dash lines, and those indicated by single .dot-anddash lines. Those indicated by thedouble score lines are scores in which the paperboard is bent and weakened to .form a hing but i not cut. The single score lines represent scores in which the paperboard is partially cut through to form sharp corners. The manner of making thesescores is well known tothose skilled-in the art.

The several blanks may be ,made of suitable paperboard orcardboard having suitable advertising or printed matter thereon. The advertisir g find printed matter rnay be placed directly on the surface of the paperboard or cardboard, or the paperboard or cardboard may be provided with a layer .of paper on which the printing and advertising isplaced.

The blank A, which .might be called a back panel, comprisesaback wal1 l0,siclewal1s H and l2, side liners ['3 and 14 and aback support l5 having wings Ni and ears l1. Flaps [8 to 22 are also provided. This blank is provided with the scores asindicated one of which, 23, is discussed below.

The blank B, which may be called the cover panel, comprises a display wall 24, a top wall 25, and a hinged cover 26 having an oval opening '2'! toform a window. This blank also has scores 44 and: whose functions are discussed'below.

'The blank "C, which may be called the shelf The entire cabinet will be assembled at the factory where the cabinet is made, preferably by I glue, metal fasteners, or both. The assembled cabinet is then collapsed and shipped flat to reduce its shipping size, to the battery merchant. The battery merchant merely opens up the cabinet, bends certain parts, and places the batteries in the battery recess and he has an attractive pilfer-proof merchandising cabinet. The method of assembling the cabinet, collapsing it and setting it up, will be described hereinafter;

The method of' assembling the cabinet at the factory where the cabinet is made is as follows:

The blanks A and C are connected (see Fig. 5) by bending the side walls H and I2 with respect to backwall l and gluing the flaps l8 and 2| to the front wall 30. Blank B is then put in place by gluing display wall24 to back support l5,

4 and 39 be bent in the factory. The side liners i3 and M will be folded inwardly into parallelism with their side walls I I and I2 and the front wall 33 and side walls II and I2 will be swung into substantial parallelism with the back wall l0.

Bottom wall 32 will be folded down in front of the front wall 30 and, if desired, the flaps 33 and 34 will be folded inwardly. The back support l5 and display wall 22 will be folded back along score line 23 and cover 26 will be folded down in front. The fully collapsed cabinet is illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8., 1

Upon receiving the collapsed fully assembled cabinet, the batter merchant sets it up very care being taken not to glue the wings l6 and 4 Care should also be taken The two blanks D are then put in place by gluing the.

flaps 38 to the front wall and the flaps to the back wall II], as illustrated particularly in Fig. 5.

The transparent plastic window pane 4| is then glued to frame 42 within the reinforcing strips 43 and then the frame is glued to the inside of the cover 26 as illustrated particularly in'Fig. 3.

This assembly produces a display cabinet which, when fully set up, is illustrated in Figs. 1 to 6. Here it will be noted that the side liners l3 and M are folded inside the battery space indicated by 5|. The bottom walls 3| and 32 of shelf blank C are also folded inwardly and rest upon the braces 3'! to form inclined forward and rear bottom walls for the batter compartment 5|. The display wall 24' is kept in uprightposition by swinging back support I5 upwardly about the score 23 and folding outwardly the wings l6 and then downwardly the ears H. The ears have notches 28 which position the wings I6, as illustrated particularly in Fig.6. Thus, with -the wings I6 held out as shown in Fig. 2, the display wall 24 is prevented from bending back and is held in upright position above the battery compartment presenting 'an attractive advertising display.

It will be seen that, when set up, the flap 22 on the back support I5 is bent downwardly to a position perpendicular to back support I5, as shown in Fig. 3 for bracing purposes. The flaps i9, 20 onside walls. II, 12 and the flaps 39 on the braces 31 are also bent horizontally to provide improved support on the counter or other l6 and ears will not be opened in the factory. I

Neither will upper flap 22 nor bottom flaps I9, 20

quickly and expeditiously. It is only necessary to square up the front wall 30, back wall In and side walls and i2, fold in the bottom walls 3| and 32 to the position shown in Fig. 3, fold up the display wall 24 into alignment with the back wall it] and swing out"the wings l6 and swing down theears ll as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 6.

The top wall 25 and the cover 26; then rest upon and overhang the'top edgesof the side walls H and i2 and front. wail 1'30. The flap 22 is' -then folded horizontally and the flaps I9; 20 and 390m the bottom of the side walls I land I2 and'brace 3! are also folded horizontally as illustrated in 4 I I The cabinet is now ready to rece've the flashlight batteries 50, 1 Y I Thus, a merchandising cabinetis provided which is relatively inexpensive and yet which is rigid and strong in use. The cabinet ismade from heavy cardboard orpaperboard suitably colored and printed to make attractive display. The entire device is assembled in the box factory and collapsed for shipping flat. Setting'up the stand for display purposes-as well as collapsing it for storage is a simple matter for'the battery merchant. I I

The inclined position of the forward and rear bottom walls of the battery compartment places the batteries at an oblique angle, which i more likely to catch the eye of the shopper, The transparent window pane permits full view of the displayed wares from different angles and yet discourages pilfering since it is necessary to raise the cover before a battery may be removed. At the same time it is an easy matter to lift the cover to the positionX in Fig. 3 and remove the batteries for legitimate purposes.- r The cabinet has sufiicient structural strength to support a heavy weightof battery cells. The inclined bottom walls 3| and 32 provide a sagging bottom for the batterycompartment which imparts added strength. The braces located under the bottom walls also reinforce the structure. The turn-down flaps 33 and 34 on the bottom wall reinforce the outeredges of thebottom wall. The folding down of the forward'botto m wall 3| of the battery compartment andthe 3 folding down of the side panels l3 and -l4 provide'finished and reinforced rolled edges for-the top of the battery compartment. 1 The frame 42 not only holds the transparent windowpane in place but also reinforces the cover 23. The lifting of the cover 25 causes hinge action partly at the score line 44 and partly-'at the score line 45 thus reducing the bending at any one score and increasing the life. of the cabinet.

While certain. novel featurestof the invention have been disclosed herein and are pointedjout in the annexed claims, it will be understoodthat various omissions, substitutions and changes may be made by those skilled. in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

What we claim is: i

' l. l-. |A pilfe'r-proof cabinet for flashlight batteries-and the like comprising, a box-like member having vertical front, back and side walls, vertical brace members connecting said front and back walls-said brace-members having V-shaped notches "in the-upper edges thereof, a bottom member resting in said notches and having an inclined forward bottom wall connected to the top of said front wall and an inclined rear bottom wall extending to said back wall, a top wall connected to said back wall and a top cover hingedly connected to said top wall, said cover having a transparent window pane therein and adapted to close the merchandise space defined by said bottom, front, back and side walls.

2. A collapsible merchandise display cabinet, particularly for heavy merchandise comprising, substantially vertical front, back and side walls hingedly connected to form a collapsible sleeve structure, brace members hingedly connected to the inside surfaces of said front and back walls to extend substantially parallel to said side walls, a bottom wall hingedly connected to said front wall and adapted to be folded down inside the sleeve structure to rest on top of said brace members, a back support hingedly connected to said back wall, a display wall secured to said back support, a top wall hingedly connected to said display wall, and a cover hingedly connected to said top Wall.

3. A collapsible merchandise display cabinet, particularly for heavy merchandise comprising, substantially vertical front, back and side walls hingedly connected to form a collapsible sleeve structure, brace members hingedly connected to the inside surfaces of said front and back walls to extend substantially parallel to said side walls, a bottom wall hingedly connected to said front wall and adapted to be folded down inside the sleeve structure to rest on top of said brace members, a back support hingedly connected to said back wall along a substantially horizontal score line, said back wall and back support having wings and ears cut out of the stock thereof, said wings being adapted to be swung out of the body of the stock about substantially vertical score lines to hold said back support erect above said back wall, said ears being adapted to be swung out of the body of the stock about substantially horizontal score lines to position said wings, a display wall secured to said back support, a top wall hingedly connected to said display wall, and a cover hingedly connected to said top wall.

4. A collapsible merchandise display cabinet particularly for heavy merchandise comprising, substantially vertical front, back, and side walls hingedly connected to form a collapsible sleeve structure, brace members hingedly connected to the inside surfaces of said front and back walls to extend substantially parallel to said side walls, a bottom wall hingedly connected to said front wall and adapted to be folded down inside the sleeve structure to rest on top of said brace members, a back support hingedly connected to said back wall, a display wall secured to said back support, a top Wall hingedly connected to said display Wall and a cover hingedly connected to said top wall, said cabinet being adapted to be collapsed by bringing said front, back, side walls and brace members into substantial parallelism, folding down said bottom wall on said front wall, folding said back support and display wall to the rear of said back wall and folding said cover down over the front of a side wall.

g '5. In a display device particuiar iy for heavy merchandise, four upstanding substantially vertical side walls hingedly connected at thecorners to form a collapsible sleeve structure, a bottom wall enclosed therein, a :brace member --'under said bottom wall'and'hingedly connected--to' tWo opposite upstanding walls to extend substantially parallel to the other two upstanding walls, said bottom wall being hingedly connected to the top edge of one of said upstanding walls, the entire device being collapsible substantially flat.

6. In a display device particularly for heavy merchandise, upstanding substantially vertical side walls hingedly connected at the corners to form a collapsible sleeve structure, a bottom wall, a substantially vertical brace member under said bottom wall and hingedly connected to one of said upstanding walls, said bottom wall being hingedly connected to the top edge of one of said upstanding walls and tucked inside said sleeve structure to rest on the top edge of said brace member, the entire device being collapsible substantially flat after removal of said bottom memoer from the inside of said sleeve structure.

'7. In a display cabinet particularly for heavy merchandise, a vertical back wall and vertical side wall connected thereto, said side walls having inclined upper edges, a front panel having a vertical front wall secured to said side walls and a downwardly inclined forward bottom wall secured to the upper edge of said front wall, an upwardly inclined rear bottom Wall secured to said forward wall, vertical brace members hingedly connected to said front and back walls and having V-shaped upper edges adapted to support said forward and rear bottom walls, and a cover member hinged to said back wall and adapted to overlie said side and front walls.

8. In a display cabinet particularly for heavy merchandise, a back panel having a vertical back wall and vertical side walls connected thereto, said side Walls having inclined upper edges with inwardly folded flaps connected thereto, a front panel having a vertical front wall secured to said side walls and a downwardly inclined forward bottom wall secured to the upper edge of said front wall, an upwardly inclined rear bottom wall secured to said forward wall and extending to said back wall, vertical brace members hingedly connected to said front and back walls and having V-shaped upper edges adapted to support said forward and rear bottom walls, a cover panel having a display portion secured to said back wall, a top wall hingedly connected to said display portion, and a cover member hingedly connected to said top wall, said top wall and cover member adapted to overlie and overlap said side and front Walls.

.9. In a collapsible display device, a cabinet, upper and lower panels whose bodies are foldable upon each other along a first score line, said lower panel forming a wall of said cabinet, said bodies being erectable to coplanar relationship wherein said upper panel is supported by said lower panel, a wing cut out of stock of both panels and foldable into a position substantially normal to the bodies of the erected panels about a second score line extending at right angles to, and crossing, said first score line to brace said panels and maintain them in erected coplanar relation, said wing and the cut out portion resulting therefrom lying before folding wholly within the plane and confines of said panels, and an ear cut partially out of the stock of the body of a said panel and partially outof the stock of said wing, said wing havingan openings resulting from the formation of said ear, said ear being foldable into interlocking relationship with the edge of. said last-mentioned opening about a third score line extending substantially parallel to said first score line and traversing the direction of said second score line,

a display panel secured to said upper panel but not to said lower panel, and a cover for said cabinet secured to said display paneliand ioldabl'e with respect to said display panelhwj V JAMES C. CALHOUN. H WILBUR L. DAVIDSON. KARL J. HANSEN. 

